Disagreement over next NASA deep space mission

12:08 AM,
Dec. 9, 2012

Written by

Ledyard King
Democrat Washington Bureau

NASA's much-touted mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by 2025 as part of a trip to Mars is being undermined largely because most agency workers don't enthusiastically support the mission, a new report says.

That finding reflects the space program's broader struggles to chart a long-term course that's widely supported and affordable, given tight budgets and political turf wars.

"NASA is now an agency at a transitional point," says the report, completed by 12 experts chosen by the National Research Council, a division of the National Academies of Sciences. "The agency faces ...